Draco Malfoy's Last Scheme
by aimeedaralyon
Summary: ONE-SHOT. Draco Malfoy confesses he was bribed to stop Hermione Granger from finishing the law she was working on. When she doesn't believe his good intentions, he decides to confess why he decided to come clean. Only to be forced to use Slytherin tactics to save his insecure heart. Written for the Houses Competition round 1: New Beginnings.


**House: Eagles**

**Class Subject: History of Magic**

**Story Category: Standard**

**Prompt: [Speech] "How is it possible that someone as intelligent as (you/Name) can be so unfathomably dense?"**

**Word count: 2497**

**Draco Malfoy's Last Scheme**

"I'll bring those files as soon as they have arrived. Oh, and boss?"

Hermione Granger glanced at her assistant. "Yes, Michael?"

The assistant smiled in a way that made Hermione feel a little uncomfortable. She knew he was going to say something he had been holding off telling her, she could feel it.

"Mr. Draco Malfoy is here to see you."

Ah. That was the thing her assistant didn't want to tell her. It made sense, as the last time her assistant told her Draco Malfoy was waiting outside her office, Hermione had asked loud enough for the entire office to hear; why he had thought it a good idea to let that toerag into her office. Hermione had to buy Michael two Chocolate Frogs to make it up to him and still doubted he was over it. Apparently her assistant found the whole encounter quite traumatising, if Hermione had to go by the hands-off mentality that her assistant displayed with each following encounter with Malfoy. So Hermione made sure to act as relaxed as possible and smiled at her assistant. "I don't have an appointment with him, do I?" she tried.

"No, boss. He said he would wait until you had the time to see him. It would only take a minute."

"Thank you, Michael. Will you let him in, please?"

He nodded and left her office.

When Malfoy entered the room, a smug look graced his aristocratic features. He smoothly slid into the seat across from Hermione's desk and stared at her, seeming intrigued by the witch. It had taken a few years, but Draco Malfoy had become healthier and less pale after the war. He wasn't as thin as a toothpick anymore and he finally had some colour on his pale skin, indicating regular sunlight. His robes fit him perfectly, like they had always done, but maturity had been very kind on him.

Draco Malfoy had even been voted 4th in the 'Top Ten Most Eligible Bachelors' when Harry had married Luna and Ron had proposed to Padma Patil. It was even rumoured that Draco Malfoy might be gay, as he never had publicly announced a girlfriend and often showed up at social gatherings alone but was surrounded by his friends nonetheless. To top off his good looks, he had started a potion-developing enterprise to improve and cure all kinds of predicaments and illnesses, much to the common wizard's favour. Draco had offered a heartfelt apology to the whole school, but to Ron, Harry and Hermione in particular and both boys had accepted. Hermione had taken longer to forgive him but even started to like Malfoy later on. He had made the Wolfsbane Potion available to everyone who suffered from lycanthropy against a fairly reasonable price and was now working on curing dark blood magic.

Only, for some reason when they met in person, he always seemed to piss her off and irritate her in a new way every week. Last week it was using her office as a hide-out for some bachelorette called Astoria Greengrass. The week before that an allergic reaction to some sort of flower and the list goes on. Additionally, he couldn't tell her how he had ended up at her office all these times, he claimed he simply was 'in the area'.

Hermione, who hardly had time for one of his next schemes, sighed at the handsome man across from her desk, not even wanting to ask why he was here now. Both Hermione and Draco were silent as Hermione continued working on her new law proposal, all the while being fully aware of him watching her. It gave her a tingly feeling on her skin and a certain feeling of anticipation, even though neither said a word. It was silent for a few minutes longer when he decided that if she wasn't going to ask, he would tell her himself.

"So I let myself be bribed for 5000 galleons."

Hermione blinked twice and put down her quill. "Excuse me?"

"To stop this new law you're working on from being accepted by the Wizengamot."

Hermione raised her eyebrows and gave Draco a questioning look. "By who?"

"Gemma Farley, she was a prefect when I got sorted into Slytherin."

Hermione realised she accidentally came across that name when she visited Harry and Luna and walked into Harry's home office. There was a list with names of people that were closely watched as they were suspected of starting a secret pureblood-supremacy group. Hermione hadn't tried to look at the names, she had simply remembered seeing that name. Not knowing how to continue she looked back at Malfoy. "Why are you telling me this then?"

Draco looked rather satisfied with himself and smirked. "Because I care about the creatures and thought you might-"

Hermione rolled her eyes at his insincere tone and interjected him mid-sentence, "I don't have time for your games today, Malfoy. I know none of the purebloods like the new law, but it is necessary! It doesn't _only_ protect the house-elves, but the wizards too! And I cannot understand that all those purebloods who think they are _so sophisticated_ don't understand the necessity of this law! How can someone just enslave those house-elves, like monsters? If house-elves love working for us so much, why can't we improve their work circumstances as a token of gratitude? It's truly atrocious that-" she stopped talking, realizing that she was ranting and rested her forehead on her left hand. Whilst closing her eyes, she took a deep breath in and sighed. "I'm not going to get into this with you, Malfoy. I am not interested in playing games with you anymore."

"I'm not here to play games, I'm just telling you so that you can prepare to some opposition in the Wizengamot court because I doubt I'm the only one she bribed and I wouldn't think she'd be too low to blackmail someone into stopping this law. Now, I think you can tell _Auror_ Potter to go arrest her on suspicion of obstruction of justice and whatever he can think of."

"Why do you even care, Malfoy? And don't give me that nonsense about caring for the magical creatures," Hermione bit out harshly.

"How is it possible that someone as intelligent as you can be so unfathomably dense?"

"I find it hard to believe that you're not saying this to rile me up."

"I'm not trying to provoke any sort of reaction, I just wanted to give you a break."

"Don't believe it. Now, can you please leave my office? I'm busy."

"Salazar, Granger! Just accept some help without questioning the intention! Can you just for once try to believe that I'm actually for this law and giving you some information that will help you achieve your goal?"

"Why- Why are you for this new law? You have house-elves enslaved at your huge manor!"

This made Draco's eyes go wide and sit up straight. "Granger, if this is the level of research you're doing, then I'm afraid we're never going to get that law in place." Draco Malfoy sighed and shook his head at her before continuing, "I have never slept one more night in that awful place – I bought a new property. All house-elves that work for me or my mother, who lives in a penthouse apartment in Paris, are paid and do have holidays and breaks in their contract. Blaise, Theo, Pansy, Daphne and Tracy also had contracts made up for their house-elves."

"Okay, so why did you let yourself be bribed? Just because you care for the house-elves' well-being and to get Farley arrested?"

"How is it possible that someone as intelligent as you can be so unfathomably dense?"

"You've said that already." Hermione stated blunt, unapologetic.

Draco Malfoy blinked slowly and seemed truly amused at her remark. "It seemed worth repeating."

"Well? What are you on about?" Hermione demanded.

"I've been in love with you for years. I just never had the guts to say it."

His words came out of his mouth rather clinically and Hermione's reply was instant, "Oh, we both know you don't mean that."

Draco got up from his seat and walked up to Hermione. He leaned against the edge of her desk and took her hand into his. His eyes searched for hers and slowly the room felt hotter. When her eyes found his, he stared into them and said, "Granger, I am in love with you. I admire your hard work, your passion to achieve, your thirst to know more and find out more. This is not a celebrity crush; I have been crushing on you for a while. Why do you think I always show up alone at important events? I don't do second choices."

Hermione replied quicker than Draco had expected, "I honestly thought you were gay. Never for a second occurred to me that you think you are in love with someone."

It was silent for about a minute when his reply sounded slow and measured. "What makes you think I'm not in love with you?"

"The fact that you just silently copied my draft version of the law and hid it in your back pocket 20 seconds ago."

"Shit."

That was the last thing Hermione heard from Malfoy while he hurried out of her office.

Draco Malfoy apparated to Blaise Zabini's manor without announcing his arrival beforehand and Draco knew the risks that would bring. Walking straight to the drinking cabinet, where Blaise stored his extensive alcohol collection, Draco took out the best firewhiskey bottle he saw, accioed a whiskey glass and poured himself a neat one, downed it in one go and poured himself another. With glass in hand, Draco walked over to the door that led to Blaise's bedroom, opened it without looking inside and said, "Blaise, get out here, I need you."

A few curses sounded from Blaise's mouth and a woman's voice laughed a little before asking Blaise, "He is kidding, right?"

The sound of ruffling sheets sounded and Draco envisioned Blaise putting on his pants and ushering his newest trophy to the fireplace. "I'm afraid not, he's a real drama queen. You know how to floo out, yeah?"

"You're not serious," she asked incredulous.

"Dead serious. See you later, sugar."

The bedroom door opened further and Blaise Zabini stepped out whilst putting on his dress shirt and letting it hang open. Blaise immediately knew something was wrong with his best friend, judging by the speed Draco downed his firewhiskey.

Draco poured himself a double firewhiskey and sat down in one of the luxury chairs of the room. Blaise looked at the clock, noticed it was a little past 12 in the afternoon and shrugged before pouring himself a drink as well. He plumped down in a chair opposite of Draco and inspected him closely.

Draco angrily stared at the ceiling after sipping his drink and didn't give Blaise a second glance, nor felt the need to remark the state Blaise was in, as it had almost become a routine for the two men.

Blaise turned to Draco and said, "Let me guess, it has something to do with _her_."

"I don't know who you're talking about," Draco grumbled.

"Can we not do this today? Can you just tell me what happened, so I can tell you that you have acted like a jerk so that I can continue my day?"

Draco didn't reply, which was odd because Draco usually jumped to any opportunity to react dramatically to anything Blaise and Theo said that involved Draco himself. Blaise downed his drink and accioed the bottle to pour himself some more. He also added more to Draco's glass, who had held it out as a cue that he also wanted more.

It was the first time after the war that Blaise actually started to worry for his best friend, as this behaviour was not typical at all. Blaise thought of all the possible causes that involved Hermione Granger because she was the only one who could impact him so badly. Before Blaise could guess, Draco opened his mouth, "I told her I loved her. I just blurted it out. When I realised she had no clue and wasn't going to say it back, I copied the draft of the law. You know, as an excuse so that it would seem that I only said it to distract her while manipulating her work since she knew that Farley bribed me."

Blaise said nothing but nodded to Draco.

"Cookie," Blaise said.

A house-elf appeared in front of Blaise and bowed to his master. "Yes, Master Zabini?"

"Will you please go to Hermione Granger and tell her that she can arrive here in my living room via the floo network?" Cookie nodded and disappeared with a *BANG*.

Draco's face seemed to be frozen in shock when he realised what was about to happen. "I hate you," Draco whispered to Blaise, who seemed delighted.

Blaise didn't reply and smiled at Draco when Hermione Granger stepped out of the fireplace.

"Blaise-" Hermione started but before she could continue, Blaise interjected, "Hermione, I am sorry for my best friend. He is a complete and utter fool. I have been listening to him whine about you since our fourth year, having to hear him go on and on about you and right now I'm too tired to put it delicately, but he is in love with you. He loves you. He only copied the draft of that law because he was afraid that you wouldn't say that you loved him back and he therefore wanted to paint it off as a scheme he was pulling. This man here," Blaise pointed to Draco, who had jumped to his feet when Hermione had entered, "has fought for the weak wizards and creatures ever since the war had stopped because it mattered to _you_. He lobbied for all the laws you've written, tries to cure diseases that are important to you. You have the right to know all of this, but he has a right to know how you feel about him."

Hermione simply said, "I love him."

"What," Draco said, not able to believe what he was hearing.

"I only just realised. I've been thinking about the things I find important in a man, and now I've thought about it, I realised that I cannot find any flaw in you. Well, beside your need for drama and-"

"I got it, I got it," Draco said while raising his hand to silence her.

Draco put down his glass, stepped forward and crashed his lips onto hers while motioning Blaise to go away.

Smiling, Blaise took his glass of firewhiskey and returned to his bedroom. Finally, Draco was finished with his schemes.


End file.
